Portland Wedding Coordinator

{Sunday Roundup} 5 Sites to Help You With Your Wedding Color Scheme

Image: The Perfect Palette Blog.

You're engaged, you've got the venue and the date, and are so excited to get going on planning! Yet, you're stuck on what the wedding will actually look like. Envisioning the final event means you need to pick invitations, table linens, flowers, lighting, and all the assorted goodies that go with your big party. And of course you've got to start with a color or two (or a few!) that hopefully go together.

"But I like everything!" you say. Or maybe, "Our site has this weird carpet and I'm not sure what goes with it." Or possibly, "I don't want my wedding to look too matchy-matchy." How do you decide on a color scheme that, while not as lasting as a bedroom paint job, is still super-important and something you'll remember for years to come? Here are five tools and websites I like to use when I help clients formulate their color ideas.

1. The Perfect Palette This blog updates several times a week with wedding color palette ideas and an explanation of each. You can search the whole site by color family to find exactly what you want.

2. ColourLOVERS A bit broader in scope, ColourLOVERS covers not just weddings, but other design solutions such as graphic, print, and web; interior design; and fine art. Users are encouraged to get social by creating accounts, uploading patterns, and sharing with the community. (A side note: ColourLOVERS also has the great widget Themeleon, for creating Twitter screen backgrounds. It's where I got mine - look here.)

3. Kuler - Adobe Inc.'s Kuler tool makes it possible for you to take a photo of your site (or any photo, for that matter) and extrapolate a color scheme from it. Click on "Create" > "From an Image" and upload your photo and wow! You can also select different moods for the same picture. A great tool if you are feeling a bit stumped. You do need to create an account if you want to save your palettes.

4. Design Seeds Similar to The Perfect Palette, but not exclusively about weddings. This blogger takes hundreds of artful photos and applies her own aesthetic to draw out each custom color palette. A wonderful inspiration site.

5. You knew I would mention Pinterest. If you're following my boards already, you know how addicted I am and how you can be sure to see a 2am pin from me on your dashboard now and then. If you haven't had the pleasure of using this site, it is a sort of visual Twitter where you can "pin" just about any image on the Web to a virtual bulletin board, keeping all of your ideas in one place. You can create as many boards as you like and name them anything, from "Color Inspiration" to "Cute Pictures of Pugs". All boards are public, so you can search the site for your desired color scheme or idea and re-pin other folks' images to your boards. All of the above tools can be used in some way along with Pinterest.

Similar to Gmail and Spotify in the past, getting a Pinterest account might involve a bit of a wait for an invite. For you wonderful readers of The Portland Wedding Coordinator Blog, I'm offering up my next 4 Pinterest invites. Just share this post, then comment and let me know where you shared it (Facebook, Twitter, G+, Tumblr or whereever!) and I'll send you a Pinterest invite. Please make sure to include your email (which won't be publicly shown) in the comment field where asked.

Are there any other great color tools you're using to design your wedding? Please share with me in the comments as well.

Portland wedding venues that might be off your radar

This just in on the desk, a couple of Portland area wedding venues you may not have thought of:

Mt. Hood Ski Bowl

It's a great place to snowboard, but have you ever wondered what's up there in the summertime? From this picture on the Mt Hood Skibowl website, it looks like it would be a wonderfully scenic place for a wedding. Close by is lodging at Collins Lake Resort, so your out-of-towners could have a full weekend of outdoor activities at the mountain.

Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center

I've driven by so many times but have never been inside, I confess. After receiving a mailer from them, I'm going to rectify my oversight soon! There are few non-hotel venues in Portland that can handle over 300 guests, and NWNCC is one of them. They also allow outside caterers. Bonus: It's walking distance to several religious institutions such as Congregation Beth Israel, St. Mary's Cathedral, and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, so members of those congregations may find it helpful that an affordable reception facility is close by.

Where should I have my Portland wedding? Some new venue ideas!

(At least, new to me!) The past few months, we at Portland Wedding Coordinator have seen several interesting new sites for weddings and receptions spring up.  We have visited a few on this list, but until we get to do the full tour and blog post, thought that we might do a little preview for those of you in venue-shopping mode.

Caples House Museum

The Villa at Little Cape Horn

Oregon Olive Mill Event Center (also see our recent blog post here)

Museum of Contemporary Craft

Bay 13 Restaurant (blog post coming soon!)

West Union Gardens

Lavender at Stonegate

Because EJP Events' coordinators are constantly out in the field, we often get calls from landowners who are curious about turning their site into a space for events.  So we're often the first to know about these new sites. 

If you are a venue owner -- Did you know, we also offer Event Site Consulting and Wedding Day Coordination services for site owners?  Our services allow you just be the owner, while we take great care of your event clients and make sure they have a wonderful wedding day.  Take a peek at our services for Camp Colton as an example.  Email emee@ejpevents.com if you're interested.

Saturday Roundup: Spring-spiration!

We've now experienced some really epic spring days this year in Portland, followed by a bit of rain and even hail, to remind us how fleeting these sunny days can be. The plum and cherry trees are really blossoming though, and there is definitely a new sweetness in the air!

With that in mind, I just have a few little thoughts...

1.  If you're in the earliest planning period for 2010, why not consider a spring wedding?  Events from January through May in Oregon are often still considered "off season", and it's possible to save a lot of money.  Think about it! Sure, you may take your chances with the weather, but honestly, any time of year you need a backup.  And April, May, June are the months when you can get tulips, ranunculus and peonies...some of the most most sought-after wedding flowers.

(above photo courtesy Adelman Peony Gardens)

(above image by moonjazz on flickr)

 

(above image, Wooden Shoe Gardens)

2.  I dropped by a recent art opening at Alma Chocolate on NE 28th Ave, by local artist Sayuri Sasaki. Just really adoring her felted and wool animal creations (bunnies, sheep), encaustic paintings of vegetables, and tulle jellyfish! I hope you will stop by Alma in the month of April and get some springtime inspiration as well.

3.  In addition to the art, Alma rocks some delicious chocolate, including lavender caramel truffles, Oregon hazelnut bark, and a wonderland of 24kt gold-painted religious icons in chocolate. I was definitely inspired with some favor ideas that I'll be sharing with you down the road shortly...

4. Finally, there are springtime elements that could work in your wedding, no matter what time of year.  Flowering branches are usually available, or can be created by your florist with a little creative use of hot glue and your favorite blossom.

(above image, Nettleton Hollow)

 

(above image, Rebecca Thuss)

July, August, and September are still the top wedding months in our area, but don't forget spring!

Saturday Roundup: Photography Eye Candy

Photography is one of the things clients tell us is THE most important part of the wedding.  It's also important in the planning process: by looking at pictures of weddings past, you can get ideas of what to do and not do at your own.  You can borrow decor ideas, be moved by emotions, and even check out photos of your own wedding site in action to figure out your own layout.

So I was thrilled when Joe Milton emailed me about the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers' recent contest winners.  Many of our very own Portland photographers such as David Barss and Amy Prutch are featured as winners.  The images are amazing and inspiring.  Please do visit and look around!

 

Also, David dropped by the other night at our Bridal Loft Open House, and in addition to bringing some very special presents (gorgeous, huge, blown-up portraits of Love, June Bridal's newest gowns) and speaking during Event Cosmetics' makeup seminar, he also tipped me off to myportlandphotographer.com , another eye-candy website featuring all-local Portland and Willamette Valley photographers posting their latest greatest shots. If you are venue shopping I highly recommend it!

Art of Weddings Recap and Roundup

The past week was plenty busy with our participation in the first wedding show of the year - The Art of Weddings.  We had so much fun and saw all kinds of cool things that we just have to tell you about. So today's Saturday Roundup will have a lot of content, hang in there!

First off, we were so lucky to be placed near Annette from Swanky Tables Event Design.  Her business centers around getting all the little details on the table just right, from linens to place cards, and she even has a candy buffet setup service!  Her table was all decked out in pink and silver, and it was hard to resist the pink rock candy swizzle sticks! We can't wait to do an event with Annette.

Next up is Karren's Specialty Cakes. They were handing out full-size samples of their chocolate orange and pear cake and both were fabulous.  I am really picky about cake so take my word, it's great! I heard tell that Karren only does one cake a weekend, so if you're interested, get on it! Pictured below is the Porceline cake from her website:

Saturday Roundup

We are starting something new on the blog today: A Saturday Roundup!  In the Roundup, we'll recap the best of what we've seen in Portland weddings, wedding planning and wedding style this week, so you don't have to scroll all over creation (or Alltop) to find your goodies.

First things first: 50% off sale at Shoefly.com until Sunday. Heard about this from the PortlandPicks.com gals -- thanks!

Next, we have Ethical Wedding's review of The Green Bride Guide:

 

Next, a topic near and dear to us Portlanders: Rain at the wedding, from Santa Barbara Wedding Chic. (I thought it didn't rain much in lovely Santa Barbara!) Photo below by Laura Novak.

 

Our compatriots to the north (Seattle, that is) at What Junebug Loves have posted a Holiday Gift Guide.  Usually the term "holiday gift guide" is kinda ho-hum to me, but this one had: Bacon-of-the-Month!  Now you're talking!

Finally, a pink idea for wedding toasts, holiday celebrations, or just to go with french fries:

Piper-Heidsieck Rose Sauvage (another tip from PortlandPicks--if you aren't a subscriber, you need to be!)

 

That's it for Saturday Roundup!  Have a great rest of the weekend, and if you have thoughts or feedback about anything you saw today, please do feel free to post them here!